Rush Hour (1998)
cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Elisabeth Pena, Tzi Ma, and Ken Leung
director: Brett Ratner

If you can remember (or dare to) back in 1980, a young Jackie Chan first planted his feet on Hollywood soil to star in "The Big Brawl"--immediately following recent success in his own native Hong Kong. If a film where the protagonist can literally barely speak English, topped with a lame formula about having to enter a fight contest to save his brother's soon-to-be wife sounds bad...than you're right on the money.

Fast forward five years later, absent from the Hollywood scene and more Hong Kong hits notched under his belt--Chan goes for broke despite American cinema failure and signs up for "The Protector" co-staring Danny Aiello.

This time Chan was made to play the part of a Clint Eastwood style cop and Aiello as his sidekick. The film was another failure in the West and to save himself from certain embarrassment in Hong Kong (and to himself) Chan went behind the director's back to redo a large portion of the film for Eastern audiences. Neither version did well in their spots on the map.

Now, in 1998, Chan is taking one more stab at American cinema--just following the wake of his recent elevation from cult following to household name via the release of his Hong Kong film "Rumble in the Bronx" which went over big with American audiences after it was released in U.S. theatres dubbed and edited in 1996.

"Rush Hour" opens in Hong Kong shipping dock just days pending before the official takeover. Like a Batman comic book, our hero (Chan playing a detective) lurks in the shadows single-handily taking out most of the baddies loading [whatever] on and off a ship. There is some brief action, but must of it is simple and easily forgettable. In fact, one of the actors appeared earlier this year with Chan in "Who Am I?" taking part in a dynamite finale pitting him and a partner against Chan atop a roof in Holland. Here he does nothing.

What baddies did mange to escape head straight for America.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Detective James Carter (motor mouth comedian Chris Tucker) is spending his days trying to intercept some C-4 that is being sold on the streets, posing as a potential buyer to (Christopher Penn). After the arrest, Carter gloats at LAPD and hailing himself larger than life.

The bad guys from Hong Kong reappear to kidnap the daughter (excellently played by Julia Hsu) of a Chinese consulate (Tzi Ma). The FBI is then called in to investigate. Unfortunately, for the FBI, the consulate demands that one of his own people be involved seeing that him and his daughter is neither American. So he enlists in Detective Lee (Jackie Chan) from Hong Kong.

Sensing that this Detective Lee will simply complicate matters (not to mention turn things into an international incident)--the FBI calls on LAPD to send over a man to baby sit Lee. And this is LAPD's cue to be able to get rid of Carter for a while. Little does Carter know about his role in the investigation.

"Rush Hour" is formulaic in many ways. Earlier in the summer, we saw yet another example of this kind of fare in "Lethal Weapon 4." The buddy cop routine--they meet--they're opposites--they don't like each other--and before credits dominate the screen, they are buddies.

Here this kind of treatment is familiar and yet it is still entertaining, partly, because it is a lot of fun to see someone like Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker paired up. Chan's character is all business and Tucker's can't go a minute without having some kind of smart-ass rhetoric flowing from his mouth. Carter's observations on Lee's culture are amusing without being degrading. Lee's observations are more like moral issues that reflect Chan's own ideals.

It's almost as if neither is portraying characters, rather themselves on the screen. The chemistry between the two characters never goes limp, never doubting that both are real life ying & yang's.

The action and martial arts of the film aren't quite up to par with what Chan has done in the past. There is some interesting stuff here and a few kicks, punches, and chops that entertain--but rarely anything ever special. A lot of the kung fu takes a back seat to Tucker's constant delivery of insults and smart-ass comments.

If that isn't apparent enough, the trademark outtakes on the film deal with botched lines 9 out of 10 times and not "oohs" and "ouches" ...for a Jackie Chan film that can be a bit of a let down.

You might wonder who really possesses the film's soul.